WLRN Music Hour 33: Remembering Mary Oliver

Welcome back, sisters, to the first hour of Women's Liberation Music in 2020. It's been eight months since my last music show when I featured the writings of Andrea Dworkin. I can honestly say that the two deaths of well-known writers who have affected me the most have been Andrea Dworkin (who died April 5, 2005) and Mary Oliver who died a year ago today, January 17, 2019. So it seems appropriate that I return with another edition of my music show with a tribute to Mary Oliver. This month's varied music of international under-represented female artists will accompany my reading of some of Mary's poems, all of which celebrate nature, my most beloved muse. I went to visit Mary's hometown for 40 years, P'town, last Fall for a week and walked the beaches and trails she walked and wrote prolifically about, like around Blackwater Pond and the Pinewoods. It was a significant and magical time there; I felt Mary Oliver close, chiding me, for example, to wake before dawn so as to catch the first glint of the day on Blackwater Pond, to see the world through the awe that moved her. I met a small white maltese (who reminded me of pictures of her beloved dog) on the beach directly in front of the home she and her partner Molly Malone Cook lived and I sat in the corner booth at Fanizzi's restaurant next door where I imagined she sat, marveled at the tides and wrote on days she tired of her desk. I didn't seek these things out, they came to me or, I, to them. It was an honor 'being led' by Spirit in this way. I can't imagine better footsteps to trace. And so, I bring that comfort and awe to you, sisters, through this pairing of entrancing and gentle music with Mary Oliver's poetry. I hope you are nourished by this next hour wherever and however you are this midwinter here in the Northern hemisphere. Song List: Returning Jennifer Berezan Elle Mari Boine Karuna Stellamara Title Unknown Jennifer Kriesberg Lecieli Zurauli Laboratorium Piesni You Never Know Mari Boine Oh Love Ayla Nereo Ahccai Mari Boine Lihkahusat Mari Boine Give Me a Break Mari Boine Sorgblidni Eivor Balu BaDuel Go Vuoittan Mari Boine Kappee Laboratorium Piesni Rise Again (Instrumental) Poetry List What the Body Says, New and Selected Poems, vol 2 Long Afternoon at the Edge of Little Sister Pond, ibid Lead, ibid Climbing Pinnacle, ibid Ravens, ibid In Praise of Craziness, of a Certain Kind, ibid The Bleeding-heart, ibid The Best I Could Do, Why I Wake Early Life Story, A Thousand Mornings The Measure, New and Selected Poems, vol 2 Bone, ibid The Sweetness of Dogs, Dog Songs Those Days, Our World I Looked Up, New and Selected Poems, vol 2